The decline of F1

Formula One has become such a large money making machine that due to over-regulation it runs the risk of alienating its core fans.

At the conclusion of last weekend's Singapore GP, Australian driver Mark Webber hitched back a ride to the pits on the sidepod of Alonso after his car broke down. The fact that this happened in a blind corner caused the stewards to issue the below mentioned report asking for a reprimand:

"The driver of car 3 drove the car in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person".

Please see the official document to the right.

This same courtesy was extended by Nigel Mansell to the legend Ayrton Senna back in 1991, when Senna rode on the Williams sidepod of rival Mansell at Silverstone. See picture below.

The difference between these two incidents is that Alonso stopped on the racing line in a blind corner and that the business of F1 is exponentially bigger than it was 22 years ago. The former was used as an excuse to give Alonso a reprimand and Webber a 10-grid penalty at the next event [note I didn't call it a race].

To me, this is hypocrisy at its best. We all know that motorsports at this level all have a high degree of danger, but we leave this in the capable hands of the drivers who know best. Yet, in this case, even though we cheer these drivers who all have incredible sharp reflexes combined with the modern F1 car out-of-this-world braking power, the stewards deemed it necessary to intervene.

The entire paddock area must be laughing amongst themselves, especially the drivers. They all know that this is entirely over blown. And Webber, he must be glad he is leaving the F1 circus this year.



Senna hitching a ride with Mansell, who can be seen saluting the fans

Thanks for reading.

Photo credit: Motorsports.com.

The KERS and DRS explained

If you are a Formula One fan you surely know about KERS and DRS. But, for those of you who are not familiar with the terms, here follows a quick explanation.

The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) first introduced the kinetic energy recovery system (or simply know as KERS) to Formula One racing in 2009, but it had not been used with reliability until 2011. The KERS recovers a moving cars kinetic energy under braking and stores this in a reservoir (flywheel or battery) for later use under acceleration. Current rules caps its power capacity to 60 kilowatts (80 bhp), but come the 2014 season, it will be doubled to balance Formula One's move from 2.4 liter V8 engines to 1.6 liter V6 engines.

Another relatively new rule is the "Driver Adjustable Bodywork" commonly know as drag reduction system (or DRS), first introduced in the 2011 Formula One season, in an effort to improve straight-line overtaking. During F1 competition, the DRS works only when certain conditions are met, such as, the pursuing car must be within one second (when both cars cross the detection point). Another one is that the DRS can only be used once two full racing laps have been completed, and when the pursuing car enters the designated "activation" zone defined by the FIA.

In the video below, World Champion Sebastian Vettel explains the KERS and DRS.

The DRS system was also used by the Nissan DeltaWing during this year's running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The KERS and DRS has certainly made Formula One races more exciting. Two thumbs up!

Thanks for reading.

Source: FIA, Formula One, Wikipedia.

Video credit: NextgenAutoVideos/YouTube

The race weekend that was - UPDATED

NASCAR, at Pocono:
This unique track's 2.5-mile tri-oval has challenged Nascar's best since they first ran there back in 1973. And everyone knew that the 400 [miles long race] would be a difficult race, especially pole-sitter Joey Logano, since no one had gone from pole to win the race in a long time. But in the closing laps of the race, he found himself saying: "I can do this. I can do this."

Logano taking the win from pole

With just four laps to go Logano shows veteran Mark Martin no respect and gives him the bump and run for the lead and wins. Mark Martin finishes for the seventh time in second place, and made the following statement on the youths' winning move:
"Well, I'd call that a bump-and-run. It's been acceptable in this racing for a long time. It's not how I would have done it, but certainly, if I'd have a fast enough car, he would have gotten a return [bump]. But I couldn't quite keep up with him".

The race result are as follows: 1. Joey Logano, 2. Mark Martin, 3. Tony Stewart, 4. Jimmie Johnson, 5. Denny Hamlin.

The bizarre aspect of this race was the quantity of pit-road speed violations. A total of 22 were handed down, with Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and three others being penalized twice for speeding in the pits.

Below a short video on the bump-and-pass winning move by Logano.



The next race will be held in Michigan on June 17. Fore more info, please click here.


Formula One, at the Canadian GP:

The street circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, in Montreal, was the venue for the seventh round of the world championship. And yes, there was a seventh different winner here too.

The first five on the grid of the Canadian GP were: 1. S. Vettel, 2. L. Hamilton, 3. F. Alonso, 4. M. Webber, 5. N. Rosberg.

The first corner and subsequently first lap of the race was free of racing incidents, which is remarkable for a narrow street circuit. In the opening stage of the race different tire strategies became the center of attention, with teams trying to position their drivers with the best strategy to win the race.

2nd place R. Grosjean

As all the front runners (RBR, McLaren and Ferrari) seemed to be running a two-stop tire strategy, the Britton Lewis Hamilton flinched first and came into the pits, but when it became apparent that the other two were running on a one-stop strategy, he was forced to pass them "the old fashion way". Go around them on the track!

And so he did. At this time Hamilton was lapping a second quicker a lap and first passed Sebastian Vettel and just two laps from the finish he passed Fernando Alonso for the lead. In the end, Lewis Hamilton defied a two-stop strategy to claim his third win in Canada and assume the F1 world champion lead.

The one-lap tire strategy proved to be the wrong one, as both Alonso and Vettel dropped outside of the podium, when the were passed by Romain Grosjean (Lotus) and Sergio Perez (Sauber).

Mexican Sergio Perez and Sauber team

The podium looked like this:
1. Lewis Hamilton, 2. Romain Grosjean, 3. Sergio Perez, 4. Sebastian Vettel, 5. Fernando Alonso.

For more information on the race, including selected quotes, please click here.

Hamilton on his win. "...I'd say it's one of the best races I've had for a very long time."

Below the post Canadian GP interview.



Since the drivers were on "our" side of the pond, and the new american races are closer to reality, Bernie encouraged some airtime for the races in Texas and New Jersey.

Below you can watch the skid from the Late Night Show David Letterman with Vettel as guest.




The next race will be GP of Europe, at Valencia, on June 22-24, 2012. For more info, please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Formula One, Crash.net, Wikipedia, Nascar.

The weekend that was

In Formula One:
Despite a lot of turmoil surrounding the GP of Bahrain, the lights went out as scheduled and the race started without a hitch. Even more, the race was so exciting that ring master Bernie Ecclestone said that Bahrain can have F1 forever!

A Lotus making a move on Red Bull?

As for the race itself, Vettel started from the pole and kept everyone at bay to win the race in commanding fashion. There were many surprises during the race, but I think Lotus' performance stood out. Around the middle of the race Kimi Raikonnen even tried to pass Vettel for the lead but came a few inches short of pulling the upset of the race.  The "Iceman" would eventually have to settle for second place while teammate Romain Grosjean completed the podium in third place for Lotus Renault.

Kimi in his own words form Bahrain:



Welcome back Kimi, after just four races a podium finish.

Race highlights: last race winner Rosberg raises eyebrows as pushes several drivers of the track and escaped penalties, Williams and Marussia retirements, Jensen Button undone by poor pace and puncture, Hamilton fumes at pit stop failures, Paul di Resta jubilant with "massive" sixth place, and Ferrari finishing a minute behind the race winner but both drivers earn points.

Next, the F1 circus will head to Catalunya for the Spanish GP on 11-13 May.

In NASCAR:

Hamlin leading Truex, both in Toyota's

The STP 400 was run in Kansas last Sunday in changing track conditions. Denny Hamlin held off race favourite Martin Truex Jr. for the final 30 laps to win the race and his second victory of the season. Even though Truex had led for 173 laps, he could not keep up to the changing track conditions, which had made his car "wrecking loose". He was fast when it was cloudy but towards the end of the race, when the sun came out so did eventual race winner Hamlin, as he powered by Truex.

Jimmie Johnson finished in third place, with Roush Fenway Racing teammates Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle rounding up the top five.

The trucks took to the track on Saturday afternoon for the nascar Camping World Truck Series race on the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway. James Buescher (Chevrolet) led for over two thirds of the race and won comfortably with a five second lead over championship leader Timothy Peters (Toyota). Brad Keselowski, Nelson Piquet Jr. and Todd Bodine rounded up the top five.

In drag racing, ADRL:
The ADRL made a successful debut at Bristol Dragway, aka Thunder Valley.
In Pro Extreme, Jason Scruggs took the title as he ran a 3.675 at 205.72 mph to beat Tommy D'Aprile in the finals.

more to come soon.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Sky Sports, Nascar, ADRL

Photo credit: auto-motor-und-sport.de, Autostock

This exhaust gives you "wings"

From the folk at Jalopnik we got this awesome close-up picture of the exhaust that gave Red Bull "wings".

The picture was taken at the Geneva Motor Show and is of the Formula One Red Bull RB7. Key to the RB7's dominance in 2011 was the flattened oval exhaust pipe funneling hot gas directly over the diffuser, which is the aerodynamic structure in the rear of the car which creates downforce.  These two elements were first combined in the late 1990's and are widely known as the exhaust-blown diffusers. But they didn't become crucial until 2010, when Adrian Newey's new design (RB6) proved to be instrumental in Red Bull winning their first F1 championship

The RB7's exhaust can be seen in the center of the photo

Since then, the development of the exhaust-blown diffuser continued at a frantic pace. The RB7's engine was programmed to feed hot air to the diffuser even while the driver is off the throttle.  This is evident in the strange sound the RB7 makes when the driver is off-the-throttle. However, going forward F1 teams will have to do without them for they have been banned from competition.

The furious pace in F1 research and development is simply amazing!

Source: Jalopnik